Beautiful legends of the Liangshan Yi Torch Festival

The Yi people's application for the Torch Festival has not yet been successful. In order to not regret it next time, quickly learn about Torch Festival.

Yi people are a people in western Sichuan, China that worship fire. It has a population of more than 1.5 million and lives in Liangshan Mountains, which covers more than 60,000 square kilometers. The Yi people thrive and live in this land with a long history, ancient culture, and magical legends. To this day, they still retain the most simple, strongest and unique cultural traditions. The people of fire, the descendants of fire, and the ancestors of the Yi people who worshipped, loved and loved fire for generations believed that fire was the starting point of life and the end of life.

Torch Festival is an annual traditional and major sacrificial festival for the Yi people in Liangshan. But at first, it was just a folk custom for Yi ancestors to use torches to drive insects and ward off evil spirits and hope for a bumper harvest. In the historical process of conquering and transforming nature, this custom gradually evolved into today's folk cultural and sports festivals. The Torch Festival has a long history and has been in existence for more than a thousand years since the Han and Tang Dynasties. There are many records and legends about the origin of the Torch Festival, rich in content and unique characteristics.

Among them, the more common saying is that in ancient times, the Hercules Siraabi in the sky and the Hercules Oslaba on the earth competed in wrestling. After the defeat of Siraabi, heaven interfered with right and wrong, and the gods were furious, so they sown many pests to destroy the crops. The grain was not harvested, and the people were in dire straits. As a result, the hero Russian Laba led people to light torches to dispel insects and eliminate pests, and finally defeated the gods. Another legend: After the god Ntiguz sent his minions to the world to collect exorbitant taxes and was killed, he released pests to harm the world in retaliation. Laba, Russia, invited everyone to use torches to burn pests to ensure safety. Although there are different opinions, the Torch Festival is celebrated at the same time in various places, which is the 24th day of the June month of the lunar calendar every year.

In order to celebrate the great victory of man over God, people gathered at a plateau flat dam called "Ridudi San"(now known as the Torch Field) for three days and three nights. The greedy Ayi Yi children) are waiting to eat the meat of the festival, and the Aimi Yi girl who loves beauty) are looking forward to the happy Torch Festival. Whenever the festival comes, the Yi village becomes busy. The girls rush to sew new clothes and colorful dresses. The young man trains horses and is eager to wrestle. Ayi holds the rooster and forages in the mountains; the aggressive bull gains without effort and enjoys the special treatment of the old Yi people).

According to the traditional customs of the Yi people, Torch Festival lasts for three days. In the early morning of the first day, men gather by the river to kill pigs, cattle, and sheep to divide the meat; women are busy at home cooking buckwheat buns and tsamba noodles to prepare cooked food for the next two days. There is also an important part on this day, that is, every family must kill a chicken, inspect the chicken tongue, chicken gall, and chicken shares to predict good or bad luck in the coming year, and burn the chicken to worship ancestors, praying for the safety of the family and the prosperity of the livestock. The next day, people from four townships and eight regions dressed in festive costumes poured into the torch field surrounded by green mountains from the shanzhai dozens of miles or even hundreds of miles in radius. The activities on this day can be described as exciting. Traditional events include bullfighting, horse racing, sheep fighting, wrestling, cockfighting, pole climbing, sheep grabbing, shooting, song competition, beauty pageant, dress competition, eagles catching chickens,"Ji Le Lotus" dance, playing torches, playing love fire, etc.

The event is very original and rustic. On the third day, we continued the activities that were not completed on the previous day. The sun shone on the sky red. He led the winning cow, Ayi held the undefeated rooster, the young man surrounded the "torch beauty", and Aimi followed the wrestling hero back to the village to light the torches made of wormwood branches or fine bamboo. The sacred "fire-sending" ceremony was held. The climax of the Torch Festival is approaching. Men, women and children of the Yi family hold high the torches in their hearts to celebrate the harvest, pray for peace, and wish good luck.

Torch Festival is a "carnival" for Yi people in Liangshan and Liangshan, and a "Valentine's Day" for brothers and sisters to love each other. Yang Sheng 'an, a literati of the Ming Dynasty, was amazed at the grand carnival night of the Torch Festival, and left a poem that has been passed down through the ages: "The clouds are covered with red sun just over the mountains, and the fierce torches are scattered in all directions. Thousands of lotus flowers bloom in the sea, and a star shines down on the world." Yi proverbs describe the Torch Festival as: "Kushi" New Year) is a festival for mouth, and "Duze" Torch Festival) is a festival for eyes.

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